Bad Man is an atmospheric and unsettling novel, but not a perfect one. The plot, seen largely through Ben’s limited point of view, can be murky and difficult to follow ... Certain elements...are insufficiently developed. Yet the book works ... his ability to convey the grief, guilt and sense of loss that fuel Ben’s fixation gives the book a resonant emotional center ... It will be interesting and instructive to see what dark places he takes us to next.
The Shining set in a grocery store ... Red herrings and loose ends abound, and some readers will find the book lacks focus. But Auerbach is magnificent with atmosphere, able to conjure dread from a huge array of normally nonthreatening places.
Auerbach keeps the reader on unsettling ground with this nihilistic tale ... three stars out of four ... Auerbach cleverly weaves in the horror trope of creepy kids amid a vibe that’s best described as Stephen King meets Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in a Harris Teeter ... Despite some gallows humor and the occasional male bonding, the novel is wickedly effective in creating a feeling of doom ... Auerbach paints a chilling portrait ... Despite late plot twists that make the story unnecessarily convoluted, Bad Man delivers an unexpected gut punch.
Bad Man will slowly but surely creep you out ... [Auerbach] wrings terror out of the every day and every night of the semi-urban Florida Panhandle and makes the world stop for the time it takes to read this work ... Auerbach describes perfectly the painful and depressive nooks and crannies that have burrowed into Eric’s family and taken irrevocable root at its foundation ... Auerbach’s work has been compared to early Stephen King, and while I don’t know if that is accurate from a stylistic standpoint, one could certainly draw a ragged line between King’s accounts of the Whites and the Torrances and the incidental despair that Auerbach demonstrates here ... It is perfectly understandable if, after reading Bad Man, you never want to take your child to a supermarket again.
This nasty little slice of Southern gothic ... An unreliable protagonist and a nebulous finale may put some off, but credit Auerbach for keeping readers on the edges of their seats for the whole ride.
Readers will be reminded of the young Stephen King ... but the story unravels at the conclusion, with one too many strained sequences. The novel’s rich imagery suggests Auerbach is capable of doing better next time.
